Depressed
by RebelzHeart
Summary: "You're sick." Sabo declared. "Healthy people don't try to shoot themsleves." Because heaven knew that Ace needed help, and Sabo was there to give it to him. Oneshot


Sabo threw what felt like the millionth weapon over the cliff, into the sea, and turned to Ace. "What were you _thinking_?" He seethed. "You idiot, I told you to stop pulling stunts like this!"

Ace, hands shoved into his pockets and features twisted into a permanent scowl, glared at the ground and replied, "It's not a stunt, and you should have let me do it."

"Like hell I'd ever let you do it." Sabo snarled as he stepped towards Ace. "You're going to live until you've got white hair, and until that happens, I'm not letting you die."

Irrational rage filled Ace's voice as he demanded, "What makes you think that you can stop me?"

Sabo wrapped his fingers around Ace's wrist as he retorted fiercely, "What makes you think I can't?"

"I'll do this every second. You'll get tired of stopping me. You've give in. You'll let me go, and when I'm gone, you won't care."

"I will." Sabo replied. "There's something wrong with your head if you think I won't care, and that I'll ever—even in a million years—let you go."

Ace pressed his lips tightly together, and raised his head to ask defiantly, "What about once a million and one years go by?"

"I'll still be stopping you." Sabo replied. "Do you hear me, and understand me?"

Ace shook his head, like he was trying to get water out of his ears as he mumbled, "I hear you."

Sabo's grip on Ace's wrist tightened as he repeated darkly, "But do you _understand me_?"

"I don't know." Ace's shoulders lifted in a shrug. "Maybe you're right, maybe there is something wrong with me."

"There definitely is." Sabo replied. "But we're going to fix it."

0o0o0o0o0o0

Sabo closed his book as he turned to Ace and flatly declared, "You're sick."

Ace instantly scowled, and replied, "I'm not."

"Yes, you are." Sabo's voice was matter of fact as he held up his book. "This says so."

"No, I'm not." Ace replied, his voice equally flat as he pointed at Sabo's book and demanded, "Besides, why are you believing whatever that stupid book says?"

"Because it's true." Sabo replied. "You're sick."

Ace rolled his eyes. "I'm _not_ sick." Irritation began to creep into his voice as he stood up. "And if you keep telling me that, I'm going to punch you."

"Then what are you?" Sabo demanded. "If you're not sick than what are you?"

"I'm healthy." Ace replied stubbornly.

Sabo gave a bark of humorless laughter. "You're not. You're depressed."

Ace wrinkled his nose. "Doesn't sound like a sickness." He replied. "I bet it's fake."

"It's not." Sabo groaned. "You're sick, and I'm going to prove it to you."

"I'm not." Ace repeated. "That book is stupid, and this conversation's finished."

0o0o0o0o0

"It's called depression." Sabo noted as he bandaged Ace's wrists up. "You've got to get help. You can't keep hurting yourself like this."

"I'm not hurting myself." Ace grumbled. "I'm trying to stop thinking about what _is_ hurting me."

Sabo scowled as he pointed at the scars on Ace's wrists. "And this is what you call not hurting yourself?" He demanded incredulously.

"I'm fine." Ace mumbled.

"You're not." Sabo snapped.

"You don't get it." Ace's gaze shifted away uncomfortably.

"Then explain it to me." Sabo moved back into Ace's line of sight.

"You'll think it's stupid." Ace protested.

"Of course I will." Sabo replied as he tied the bandages together. "But I'll still listen."

Ace scowled at Sabo, stubbornly silent.

Sabo stared impassively at Ace, patiently silent.

Finally, Ace caved in. "It's like you're drowning." He mumbled as he ducked his head down, voice as coarse as sandpaper as he made a vague gesture with his unbandaged arm. "And when I do it, it's like a breath of fresh air."

"Like you're trapped." Sabo guessed. "And you keep watching the outside world, but it just makes you lonelier, so you close your eyes, and you feel like you're the only person in the world, and that you don't need to feel lonely. But eventually, you have to open your eyes, and it hurts even more."

Ace nodded. "Yeah." He agreed softly, before his head snapped up as his eyes widened. "How'd you know?"

Sabo rolled his eyes. "I've felt like that before." He admitted. "What, did you think that I would tell you that you were acting like an idiot?"

"Maybe." Ace admitted.

"Well, I'm not." Sabo pressed his forehead onto Ace's. "You need help."

Ace nodded reluctantly. "Maybe I do." He agreed brokenly.

0o0o0o0

"We need to tell Luffy." Sabo declared as he stormed into Ace's bedroom, hands on his hips, eyes bright with stubbornness.

"No, we don't." Ace replied instantly. "Luffy doesn't need to know."

"He's our _brother._ "

"We need to protect him."

"Exactly." Sabo crouched down and made eye contact with Ace. "If you decide to shoot yourself because we didn't tell him, he'd know what his family dying feels like."

"I won't." Ace replied. "I got over that."

"Right." Sabo rolled his eyes. "And that's why you tried to shoot yourself yesterday."

Ace scowled. "I won't do it again."

"You will." Sabo replied angrily. "You always do, and that's what you always say! We have to tell him."

"We can't." Ace whispered.

"It's not your choice to make." Sabo declared.

"What if he thinks it's stupid?"

"He won't."

"He will."

"He loves you too much."

"…What if he's scared of me?"

"He'll be scared _for_ you."

"I don't want him to be scared."

"Then next time, don't try to shoot yourself."

0o0o0o0o0

"Ace is sick?" Luffy's eyes were wide as he digested the information. "And that sickness makes him feel really sad and alone sometimes?"

"That's right." Sabo replied. "So, we've got to cure him by giving him lots of love and never leaving him alone."

Luffy nodded, strangely quiet as he wrapped his arms around Ace. "I don't want Ace to try to kill himself." He muttered. "I like Ace."

"I like Ace, too." Sabo agreed. "So, we have to make sure Ace likes Ace, too."

Luffy smiled. "Alright." He agreed. "Does Ace like Ace?"

Ace, who had been scowling the entire time, wrapped his arms around Luffy as well. "Ace likes Luffy and Sabo." He mumbled into Luffy's hair. "And that's enough."

"It's not." Sabo replied flatly.

"It's not." Luffy instantly agreed. "Ace has to like Ace, because Ace is Ace, and only Ace is Ace, so Ace has to know that he's Ace, and that Ace is the best thing that Ace can be, because Ace is Ace."

Ace's eyebrows knit themselves together in confusion, but he nodded. "Alright." He agreed hollowly. "I'll try."

"Don't try." Sabo glared. "Do."

Luffy nodded, his arms wrapping themselves tighter around Ace.

"Alright." Ace sighed. "I will."

Sabo looked doubtful, but Luffy seemed satisfied, and it was the best compromise they had come to so far, so he stayed silent.

He figured it was alright… for now.

0o0o0o0

"I'm happy with being alive." Ace decided. "I like being with Sabo, being with Luffy, smelling the forest, having our spars, seeing the sea, dreaming of freedom, hunting animals, eating, breathing, drinking, everything. I like it."

"Of course you do." Sabo replied. "What's there not to love?"

"Nothing." Luffy giggled.

"Nothing." Ace agreed.

"We've got you cured?" Sabo asked testily.

"Yeah." Ace agreed. "I'm cured."

And he smiled.

 **A/N:** This was… badly written, and ended pretty badly, too… but I hoped you liked it? Sorry for updating so much oneshots lately, I have no idea why my emotions are fluctuating so much…


End file.
